A Saturator is a tool that is commonly used during a mixing and mastering stage to add certain harmonic excitement to a track. Saturators come in various forms and today we will talk about a few common saturators that I use in my Mastering chain and that drive a lot of decisions that are taken from a Mastering standpoint.
Sonnox Inflator
TRS Saturator X
VMR Virtual Mix Buss
Ozone 9 Saturator
Sound Toys Decapitator
This may seem a little odd to people reading this post, but Decapitator is such a great Saturator that works beautifully even in Mastering Stage. This plugin is know for its extreme Sound Design use and for literally obliterating sounds, but it can also be used in a gentle fashion and it adds a huge amount of this very specific character to the signal. Again, this is one of those plugins that may not work for all situations but where it does work, no other plugin can even come close.